Originally Posted by
Basstar
I actually wasn’t concerned about the money.
You are correct. All hobbies are money pits.
I really was just wondering if I would be able to tell the difference in riding long distances by replacing the older parts with newer bearings, chain, etc.
The biggest difference would be a 650b wheelset. Long story short; the biggest impact on rolling resistance is tire pressure. It just happen that bigger tires cannot take a lot of pressure. So, you want smaller slick tires that can take higher pressure, but doing so shrinks your tires which changes your bike geometry and you have to crank faster for the same speed (which some actually like). a 650b rim is a bit larger than a 26" with the end result that even with the skinnier tire (that can take higher pressures) you end up with the same tire diameter as the fatter 26" tires. The one caveat is that your brakes need to have enough reach to contact the bigger rims.
I'm currently building a former mountain bike into a touring bike with 32mm 650b tires and so far my daughter is loving it.